HARD
TO EXPLAIN TALES 21
A Frightening
Experience!
After graduating from high school in 1963, I attended a small liberal arts
college in central Illinois. During my freshman year, I was unfortunate enough
to have to share a very small dorm room, originally designed to house only one
person, with another freshman woman. The room was in the oldest part of the
women's dorm, which had been built in 1922. It was a long narrow room, with the
door to the hallway in one of the short walls, and the window in the opposite
short wall.
There was only one closet and one dresser, which we managed to share amicably,
but in order to have enough floor space for our study desks, it was necessary to
stack our beds bunk-bed style, one above the other. I, being the taller of us,
willingly took the top bunk. We got along well with each other and soon became
good friends. We laughingly referred to our room as "The Land of the Midnight
Sun" because our window looked out on an alley, and the bulb of a mercury-vapor
street lamp was immediately outside our window.
Around 9 o'clock, at the end of a typical mid-week day of classes and study --
no partying -- my roommate and I decided to go to bed, as we both had 8 A.M.
classes scheduled for the coming morning. We turned the room lights out, but
there was nothing we could do about the light from the street lamp, so the room
was still fairly brightly lit. We had just gotten in our respective beds when I
noticed a dark cloud of mist forming about 2 feet above me. As I watched the
thing become darker and more opaque, I was terrified, but I couldn't seem to
move or cry out. Slowly it came down until I could feel it pressing upon my
body, not with any great weight or force, but as though it was trying to push
its way inside my body. I had my eyes tightly shut and my head turned to the
side, and I was holding my breath. Somehow, I felt that if I inhaled air, I
would inhale the "thing," too. Silently, I was praying over and over, pleading
with God to make "it" go away. Although it seemed to take several minutes, I'm
sure it was only a matter of seconds before it disappeared. (I was holding my
breath, after all!)
At the time, I had never heard of the "Old Hag" experience or hypnogogic
dreaming. I hadn't had time to lapse into such a state, anyway, as we had just
gotten into our beds less than a minute or two before the whole thing began, and
I've never been one to drop off to sleep quickly. I had never had any interest
in the occult, Ouija boards, ghosts, or anything else of a paranormal or
supernatural nature.
Reading through the True Ghost Stories, I'm amazed at the number of people who
have had similar experiences. For the past 41 years, I have been telling myself
that I had simply imagined the entire episode, but now I'm not so sure.
I would appreciate insight from anyone who has a better understanding of what
exactly may have happened to me that night. Thank you, and, again, sorry for the
length.
Unsigned